Seven Cities of Cibola and Quivira
Spanish explorers or conquistadors entered new territory for gold, glory and God, in that order. Wealth from new lands, along with the honor of having discovered them was paramount. And, by the way, saving the souls of the inhabitants was important, too. Nowhere was this hierarchy of priorities more evidence than the legends of the Seven Cities of Cibola and another legend regarding Quivira. And, like all good legends, there's some grains of truth in the tales.
Legends of lost cities and the wealth that lay waiting to be discovered are as old as time. Europeans yearned for the riches of Prestor John, a supposed Christian civilization in Africa. Marco Polo's travels in China inspired endless speculation of the wealth of India, China and Arabia, which led to the need for a shorter route to reach these lands. Hence the need for a Northwest Passage around the gigantic landmass that is North America. Having encountered North America merely spawned more stories. It didn't help when the expedition of Panfilio de Narvaez, who was shipwrecked along the Gulf Coast in 1528 with only four survivors, picked up rumors of cities of gold further inland. Four survivors of the Narvaez Expedition, including a Moorish servant named Estevanico and conquistador Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, finally staggered back to what is now Veracruz, Mexico in 1536 with stories of sizeable cities so wealthy that the walls were made of gold brick and the streets were gold. Cabeza de Vaca and Estevanico had been as far north as the Zuni pueblos of New Mexico and had actually seen expansive adobe villages, but not gold. Never mind, there was surely gold in other villages further away, they just had to find it.
Secular explorers weren't the only ones interested in wealth. The church needed wealth to fund its missions in the New World. In 1539, a Franciscan missionary by the name of Fray Marcos de Niza was dispatched to the areas the two men had described, both to find the treasure and to determine the extent of missionary possibilities. De Niza traveled in what is now New Mexico and Arizona, the first European in Arizona, and also visited the Zuni pueblos. He also saw other, larger pueblos from a distance. Sources differ, but most likely the pueblos that de Niza saw were Cibola, Hawikuh, Halona, Mitsaki, Kiakima and Kwakina, six but not seven cities and none of them gold. He also reported other cities of gold that he'd seen from a distance. Anyone who's lived in the Southwest for any period of time knows that adobe doesn't look like gold no matter from which vantage point one views it, but de Niza wanted to self-fulfill his own wish. He hurried back to Veracruz with tales of these cities and their fabulous wealth.
Authorities in Veracruz rewarded de Niza by making him the Superior General of the Franciscan Order in North America. He accompanied Francisco Vasquez de Coronado to check out these cities. Coronado visited Cibola in 1540 and, much to his chagrin, found no gold anywhere, nor would there be in any of the pueblos he visited. Native attitudes toward wealth and European ideas couldn't have been more different. Unlike the Mesoamerican empires, Natives in North America seemed to have little use for gold or silver as a commodity. Unlike shells and beads made from semiprecious stones, they couldn't work these metals into something useful such as ornamentation, so they couldn't understand why the strangers were so worked up about gold. They suspected, rightly, that the Spanish were casing their villages for possible invasion and, as Coronado got deeper into the Southwestern states, the tribes he encountered became more suspicious and hostile.
No matter, Coronado was still bent on finding something, anything, answering to the description of a city of gold. A Native told him about a place known as Quivira, where there was gold. Coronado trekked as far as what might now be Kansas, Nebraska or Missouri, but found only Natives living in thatched villages. No gold anywhere. The Coronado Expedition returned to Veracruz, a failure in terms of finding wealth but with stories of the different peoples of the Southwest. There was still opportunities to exploit in this new land. Little did the Native peoples know, or maybe they did suspect, that these strangers with their horses, guns and metal armor would bring them nothing but trouble and heartache, totally changing their ancient way of life forever.
Legends of lost cities and the wealth that lay waiting to be discovered are as old as time. Europeans yearned for the riches of Prestor John, a supposed Christian civilization in Africa. Marco Polo's travels in China inspired endless speculation of the wealth of India, China and Arabia, which led to the need for a shorter route to reach these lands. Hence the need for a Northwest Passage around the gigantic landmass that is North America. Having encountered North America merely spawned more stories. It didn't help when the expedition of Panfilio de Narvaez, who was shipwrecked along the Gulf Coast in 1528 with only four survivors, picked up rumors of cities of gold further inland. Four survivors of the Narvaez Expedition, including a Moorish servant named Estevanico and conquistador Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, finally staggered back to what is now Veracruz, Mexico in 1536 with stories of sizeable cities so wealthy that the walls were made of gold brick and the streets were gold. Cabeza de Vaca and Estevanico had been as far north as the Zuni pueblos of New Mexico and had actually seen expansive adobe villages, but not gold. Never mind, there was surely gold in other villages further away, they just had to find it.
Secular explorers weren't the only ones interested in wealth. The church needed wealth to fund its missions in the New World. In 1539, a Franciscan missionary by the name of Fray Marcos de Niza was dispatched to the areas the two men had described, both to find the treasure and to determine the extent of missionary possibilities. De Niza traveled in what is now New Mexico and Arizona, the first European in Arizona, and also visited the Zuni pueblos. He also saw other, larger pueblos from a distance. Sources differ, but most likely the pueblos that de Niza saw were Cibola, Hawikuh, Halona, Mitsaki, Kiakima and Kwakina, six but not seven cities and none of them gold. He also reported other cities of gold that he'd seen from a distance. Anyone who's lived in the Southwest for any period of time knows that adobe doesn't look like gold no matter from which vantage point one views it, but de Niza wanted to self-fulfill his own wish. He hurried back to Veracruz with tales of these cities and their fabulous wealth.
Authorities in Veracruz rewarded de Niza by making him the Superior General of the Franciscan Order in North America. He accompanied Francisco Vasquez de Coronado to check out these cities. Coronado visited Cibola in 1540 and, much to his chagrin, found no gold anywhere, nor would there be in any of the pueblos he visited. Native attitudes toward wealth and European ideas couldn't have been more different. Unlike the Mesoamerican empires, Natives in North America seemed to have little use for gold or silver as a commodity. Unlike shells and beads made from semiprecious stones, they couldn't work these metals into something useful such as ornamentation, so they couldn't understand why the strangers were so worked up about gold. They suspected, rightly, that the Spanish were casing their villages for possible invasion and, as Coronado got deeper into the Southwestern states, the tribes he encountered became more suspicious and hostile.
No matter, Coronado was still bent on finding something, anything, answering to the description of a city of gold. A Native told him about a place known as Quivira, where there was gold. Coronado trekked as far as what might now be Kansas, Nebraska or Missouri, but found only Natives living in thatched villages. No gold anywhere. The Coronado Expedition returned to Veracruz, a failure in terms of finding wealth but with stories of the different peoples of the Southwest. There was still opportunities to exploit in this new land. Little did the Native peoples know, or maybe they did suspect, that these strangers with their horses, guns and metal armor would bring them nothing but trouble and heartache, totally changing their ancient way of life forever.
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